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Making Intel Mad, Retrocomputing EditionIntel has had a deathgrip on the PC world since the standardization around the software and hardware available on IBM boxes in the 90s. And if you think you’re free of them because you have an AMD chip, that’s just Intel’s instruction set with a different badge on the silicon. At least AMD licenses it, though — in the 80s there was another game in town that didn’t exactly ask for permission before implementing, and improving upon, the Intel chips available at the time.
The NEC V20 CPU was a chip that was a drop-in replacement for the Intel 8088 and made some performance improvements to it as well. Even though the 186 and 286 were available at the time of its release, this was an era before planned obsolescence as a business model was king so there were plenty of 8088 systems still working and relevant that could take advantage of this upgrade. In fact, the V20 was able to implement some of the improved instructions from these more modern chips. And this wasn’t an expensive upgrade either, with kits starting around $16 at the time which is about $50 today, adjusting for inflation.
This deep dive into the V20 isn’t limited to a history lesson and technological discussion, though. There’s also a project based on Arduino which makes use of the 8088 with some upgrades to support the NEC V20 and a test suite for a V20 emulator as well.
If you had an original IBM with one of these chips, though, things weren’t all smooth sailing for this straightforward upgrade at the time. A years-long legal battle ensued over the contents of the V20 microcode and whether or not it constituted copyright infringement. Intel was able to drag the process out long enough that by the time the lawsuit settled, the chips were relatively obsolete, leaving the NEC V20 to sit firmly in retrocomputing (and legal) history.Can a Toy Printer Be Made Great?Now that the bottom end of the 3D printer market has been largely cleared of those garbage “Prusa i3 clone” models which used to infest it a few years ago, a new breed of ultra-cheap printer has taken their place. EasyThreed make a range of very small printers pitched as toys, and while they’re no great shakes by the standards of most Hackaday readers, they do at least work out of the box. For their roughly $75 price tag they deliver what you’d expect, but can such a basic machine be improved with a few upgrades? [Made with Layers] has taken a look.
These printers have an all-plastic snap-together construction with a 10 cm by 10 cm bed and a set of small geared stepper motors driving their axes. He concentrates on stiffening the structure, upgrading those motors, and because he’s sponsored by a 3D printer electronics company, upgrading their controller.
The motors were replaced first with some NEMA 11 steppers, and then by some over-sized ones which maybe push the idea a little far. By moving the motors to a bracket he was able to free up their mountings to secure a 3D printed insert to stiffen the arms. Perhaps he’s pushing it a little for the video with the electronics upgrade, but we think there’s a happy medium with the smaller of the two motor upgrades and the stiffening.
So if you have an EasyThreed in your life it’s possible to upgrade it into something a little better, but it’s worth asking whether that $75 might be better spent in saving for a better machine in the first place. We’ve been curious about these tiny printers for a while though, and it’s interesting to have some more of our questions answered.AJ Releases FREE Qsynthi Quantum Synthesizer Plugin
Arthur Freye and Jannis Müller (who go by AJ) have released a new free synthesizer plugin called Qsynthi. Over the years, we have seen a wide variety of free synthesizers, including the popular Vital and Surge XT, which we have covered before. Some work with wavetables, while some may work with simple waveforms or sample-based [...]
View post: AJ Releases FREE Qsynthi Quantum Synthesizer PluginGetting It Done: Last Week in D.I.Y. & Indie MusicLast week, our tips and advice for independent and do-it-yourself musicians covered how to monetize your music, the benefits of collabs, Spotify playlist promotion, and more.
The post Getting It Done: Last Week in D.I.Y. & Indie Music appeared first on Hypebot.REWIND: New music industry’s week in reviewLast week was a busy week by any definition and the music industry was no exception with new predictions for streaming, Spotify increases prices, a boost for DJs on Twist,. Continue reading
The post REWIND: New music industry’s week in review appeared first on Hypebot.Rigid Audio launch free Rigid Grand instrument Rigid Audio have announced the launch of a free piano instrument for Native Instruments’ Kontakt platform.
Binance reaches 200M users with $100B in assets under custodyThe 200 million user mark represents over a third of all cryptocurrency holders worldwide.
Anterior grabs $20M from NEA to expedite health insurance approvals with AIAnterior, a company that uses AI to expedite health insurance approval for medical procedures, has raised a $20 million Series A round at a $95 million post-money valuation led by NEA, according to two people familiar with the deal. Existing investors Sequoia, which led Anterior’s $3.2 million seed round last September, and Neo, an accelerator […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.Gas-Tight FDM 3D Printing Is Within Your GraspThe widespread availability of inexpensive 3D printers has brought about a revolution in what can be easily made at home. However these creations aren’t perfect, particularly when it comes to the adhesion between their layers. Aside from structural failures along the layer lines there is also the question of those joins being permeable, limiting the possibility for waterproof or gas proof prints. It’s something [German Engineer] has tackled in a new video, in which he’s looking at the design and preparation of small propane tanks.
This is the frame at which the 3D printed tank explodes
The attraction of propane as a fuel is that it liquefies easily on compression, so a propane cylinder or tank will be an equilibrium of liquid propane with pressurized gas above it, whose pressure depends on the ambient temperature. This means that any tank must be expected to have a working pressure somewhere between 150 and 200 PSI, with of course a design pressure far exceeding that for safety reasons.
Filling a 3D printed tank immediately results in the propane escaping, as he demonstrates by putting one of his prints under water. He solves this with a sealant, Diamant Dichtol, which is intended to polymerize in the gaps between layers and create a gas-tight tank. A range of three tanks of different thicknesses are treated this way, and while the 1 mm thick variety bursts, the thicker ones survive.
It’s clear that this technique successfully creates gas-tight prints, and we can see the attraction of a small and lightweight fuel tank. But we can’t help worrying slightly about the safety, for even when the material is a lightweight 3D print, high pressure equipment is not to be trifled with. Tanks do burst, and when that happens anyone unfortunate enough to be close by sustains nasty, even life-threatening injuries. Use the technique, but maybe don’t hit it with high pressures.UniMagic effects plug-in from Rob Papen Rob Papen's latest plug-in is an incredibly simple processor that has been designed to offer a quick and easy way to ‘thicken up’ just about any sound source.
The Jeremiah Show | Kimi Kato Show | Arwen Lewis Show | Mike Gormley ShowTHE JEREMIAH SHOW - Featuring Patricia Vonne | Award-Winning Musician, Award-Winning Filmmaker, Actress
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She’s a three-time Austin Music Award winner. Her NEW Album is “Patricia Vonne Live from Austin, TX” with 14 songs Presented by Zodiac Studios & Austin Music Live. She has released 8 studio albums on her label - Bandolera Records.
Patricia Vonne has also appeared on the big screen in Spykids, Desperado, Machete Kills, Four Rooms, and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For in which she reprised her role as Dallas/Zorro Girl; the role that made her a cult figure among indie and fantasy film fans. Her song “Traeme Paz” was featured in the film Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
Patricia Vonne is also an award-winning filmmaker. SHE took Best Animated Short at the Madrid International Film Festival for “Huerta de San Vicente”, an homage to Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. The song was from her critically acclaimed all-Spanish album “Viva Bandolera”. ( Top 8 of The Huffington Post) She also took top honors for her film at the Barcelona International Film Fest & San Francisco New Concept International Film Festival.
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THE MIKE GORMLEY SHOW - Featuring Doug Legacy - Zydeco Part Band | Muppets
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Doug Legacy is a musician and one of the founding members of the Zydeco Party Band. He has puppeteered background characters on Muppets Tonight and his band was featured as the house band for the show (with Legacy playing accordion).
Doug is also known for The Bucket List (2007), Gilmore Girls (2000), and Muppets Tonight (1996). Doug wound up in Los Angeles in 1977 where he immediately won the Gong Show playing steel drums. He then went on to play them with Rod Stewart (a significant vocal influence on Doug), where he met Jimmy Z, playing great blues harp and tenor sax on this album. Doug had the honor to back up Paul McCartney on background vocals and accordion. He also sang for Brian Wilson, Todd Rundgren and Oingo Boingo. Doug founded the Zydeco Party Band over 20 years ago and has released several albums.
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The Arwen Lewis Show Featuring Bob Mosley
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Bob Mosley is principally known as the bass player and one of the songwriters and vocalists for the band Moby Grape. Some of his best-known songs with Moby Grape are "Mr. Blues", "Come In The Morning", "Lazy Me” and "Gypsy Wedding".
Bob Mosley, has released a collection of solo albums and collaborations. His latest releases are “True Blue” on Steadyboy Records (Austin, TX) and “The Ducks: High Flyin” (1977) featuring Neil Young, Bob Mosley, Jeff Blackburn, and Johnny Craviotto.
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THE KIMI KATO SHOW - Featuring Takato Miyake | Prestige Manager at Suntory Global Spirits
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Takato Miyake has dedicated almost a decade at Suntory, honing his skills in brand development, marketing, sales, and strategy. As one of the Prestige Managers at Suntory, Takato specializes in luxury brand experiences, spanning from Singapore to Los Angeles, while sharing the value and experience of Suntory with others. With a deep appreciation for the history and culture of his home in Japan, Takato brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his role.
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https://www.instagram.com/surprise__studioThe post The Jeremiah Show | Kimi Kato Show | Arwen Lewis Show | Mike Gormley Show first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.
What is rhythm in music: An introduction to beats, meters, and tempo
Rhythm is arguably the most fundamental element of music—in this in-depth guide, learn about the basics of how to read and create your own rhythms.Impact of shifting SEC policy on ETH ‘yet to be seen’ — Consensys SCBill Hughes, Consensys’ senior counsel and director of global regulatory matters, spoke to Cointelegraph at Consensus 2024 in Texas on the status of its lawsuit against the SEC.
Reverse Engineering Keeps Early Ford EVs RollingWith all the EV hype in the air, you’d be forgiven for thinking electric vehicles are something new. But of course, EVs go way, way back, to the early 19th century by some reckonings. More recently but still pretty old-school were Ford’s Think line of NEVs, or neighborhood electric vehicles. These were commercially available in the early 2000s, and something like 7,200 of the slightly souped-up golf carts made it into retirement communities and gated neighborhoods.
But as Think aficionado [Hagan Walker] relates, the Achille’s heel of these quirky EVs was its instrument cluster, which had a nasty habit of going bad and taking the whole vehicle down with it, sometimes in flames. So he undertook the effort of completely reverse engineering the original cluster, with the goal of building a plug-in replacement.
The reverse engineering effort itself is pretty interesting, and worth a watch. The microcontroller seems to be the primary point of failure on the cluster, probably getting fried by some stray transients. Luckily, the microcontroller is still available, and swapping it out is pretty easy thanks to chunky early-2000s SMD components. Programming the MCU, however, is a little tricky. [Hagan] extracted the code from a working cluster and created a hex file, making it easy to flash the new MCU. He has a bunch of other videos, too, covering everything from basic diagnostics to lithium battery swaps for the original golf cart batteries that powered the vehicle.
True, there weren’t many of these EVs made, and fewer still are on the road today. But they’re not without their charm, and keeping the ones that are still around from becoming lawn ornaments — or worse — seems like a noble effort.“Sampling will always be a double-edged sword”: Flamingosis talks modern hip-hop production on ‘Better Will Come’Armed with little more than a MacBook, Ableton Live, and a keen ear for infectious grooves to flip, Flamingosis has 12 albums and 10 mixtapes to his name with over 100m total streams.
Since he started making loops on GarageBand at school in 2008, the New Jersey-born producer has been addicted to beatmaking. In the early 2010s, he was a staple artist on the niche online future funk label Keats Collective and soon found immense independent success after his Hey Arnold-sampled beat, Football Head, went viral, literally overnight. “I uploaded it to SoundCloud, went to bed, and woke up later to it doing really well,” he says. “Then a day later, a friend texted me saying ‘Yo, your beat is on the front page of Reddit.’ It was crazy.”
The secret to the Brooklyn-based producer’s underground success? “I just keep going — just keep making music and uploading…During the early SoundCloud days, it felt like I was putting out 80 beats a year or something think I was putting out 80 beats a year or something.”
Now, over a decade since his debut album, Aaron Velasquez AKA Flamingosis has released Better Will Come. The LP explores themes of self-love and is, as expected, brimming with playful chops of old-school funk and soul sounds, loose and phat drum beats, and even an appearance from improv master, Marc Rebillet AKA Loop Daddy.
Better Will Come by Flamingosis
We meet with the supremely chilled-out producer right after his first-ever show in London at the prestigious Camden venue, The Jazz Cafe, to learn how Flamingosis is evolving.
Oh, the name? Flamingosis was the name of a freestyle frisbee move his dad invented in the 80s. It’s totally on-brand.
Flamingosis: “I try to implement the frisbee aesthetic into every album just because of how it relates to my family’s history. Because the Flamingosis move is a reverse spinning catch on one leg — that’s how you catch the frisbee — and while you’re on one leg catching the frisbee, it’s supposed to look like you’re a flamingo.
MT: There’s definitely a strong aesthetic to Flamingosis. Every project has that element of nostalgia, with 80s-style artwork and samples, but also with a contemporary edge.
Flamingosis: “Yeah, it’s always been predominantly funk, soul and groove music, but I try to have it be a little bit more peculiar sounding. And that’s just from listening to records and bands that were a little bit more obscure, or just from different countries, where you can tell the funk just sounds different.”
It sounds like you’ve mixed samples and recorded live instruments in a studio for Better Will Come, compared to the strictly sample approach in your earlier works…
“Right — I worked with a handful of session musicians for this album and [2021’s album] Daymaker. So instead of sampling stuff, I work with the musicians amd we make more original compositions from scratch, or almost like an interpolated composition of psat samples, but so it sounds different and its own thing. And then when we record that, I’ll get the stems of guitar, bass, drums, piano, et cetera. And then I chop it, as if it’s a sample, and arrange it.”
Flamingosis
“I’m also combining the studio session instruments with a sample, where they’re both playing at once or there’s one section. Like there’s one section where it’s just the studio session instruments and then it transitions into the sample, the sample and then a transition into the sample and the session. Yeah, instruments all at once.
How did Marc Rebillet fit into this? Was it an online collaboration for Feel Yourself or did you manage to get into the studio?
“Well, I caught Marc at a good time to work on the track [Feel Yourself]. Because he’s a very, very busy guy. But, yeah, this happened in 2022. He’s been working on his solo album, which isn’t out yet, and he was doing some studio sessions in Brooklyn and [producer and Flamingosis collaborator] The Kount is helping record and arrange and produce everything for his album. So, during that time, The Kount hit me up and told me what they were doing. They said I could come through if I wanted to.
“It was a really interesting recording session because they invited fans to come and see the recording process. And they brought a bartender to serve drinks to the fans as they watched it unfold. I haven’t seen anything like that [laughs] — it was kind of like a party.
Then after those sessions were done I said to Marc, ‘Hey, I’m working on something myself, would you like to be a part of it?’ And he said yes so we found a date and recorded in person. We didn’t have a lot of time — like I said, he’s a busy guy. He only had maybe a couple hours, so we really had to come up with an idea quickly.
“I showed him some ideas, plus a beat I started working maybe like, an hour before going to the studio. And he liked that the most. So we’re like, ‘Okay, just sing whatever!’ Improvisation is his thing, so I told him the whole theme of the album and he got the gist of that in the lyrics. And he’s basically singing the hook a hook. But it worked, I think.”Wow, an hour before? How long do you usually take to put a track together?
“Some tracks I get the idea of what I want to make very quickly and it all flows very easily — how I want to loop everything, arrange it, how I want to add the effects, the drums, all that. And then I just export it, and then I never go back to it again. But then there are others where it just feels more difficult. It usually still works out in the end but just takes more time, maybe weeks.
“Sometimes it just doesn’t work in that moment in time. Sometimes you just push through it, and then it just starts sounding good, but then there’s other times where a few days later, you go back to it, and then it works. Or sometimes if it doesn’t work, you just take everything out. And then just start from the beginning.”
Do you have many moments where you find a sample or an idea that doesn’t work at all, but you revisit it, like, a year or so later and figure it out?
“Oh, absolutely. One of the tracks on Better Will Come, was exactly like that. I think I came back to it maybe two years later. It was just one of those little loops where there was definitely something there but the way I had to chop it up and rearrange everything was just very intense and time-consuming. And I feel if it’s that intense and time-consuming. I can’t be lackadaisical; I have to be very focused.”
“But I try to not hold onto things for too long. A lot of people hold on to music for too long and then time passes and it’s still not out and…
Then it hangs around in this untouched folder for years, right?
“Yeah. And I still have some tracks that I made years ago that are still not out. But I also have a big output of other stuff that I just put out. Especially during the early SoundCloud days, I think I was putting out 80 beats a year or something.”
Flamingosis performing
You still upload to SoundCloud pretty often. Is it still a good place for you to connect with your audience?
“There’s definitely an audience on there, but the majority moved to other streaming services. I also feel like the bigger artists are just more embedded in the SoundCloud algorithm.
It feels like peak SoundCloud was a special time for music producers. I remember tales of artists like DJ Boring uploading a track, going to sleep, waking up and it’s gone viral
“That is exactly what happened to me with Football Head.
“ I spent a few hours on it and then, right after I finished it, I uploaded it. And then I went to bed. And when I woke up later, it was doing really well. Then a day later, a friend texted me saying ‘Yo, your beat is on the front page of Reddit.’ It was crazy. I remember when Kaytranada told the story of when he uploaded that Janet Jackson – If remix — it was a similar thing.”Football Head is still going strong, too. It’s got 13 million views on one YouTube video. What made you want to flip the Hey Arnold soundtrack?
“I always remembered the Hey Arnold music being really good but what brought me back to that track was a post on Facebook by the rapper/producer, Jonwayne. He posted the original song Groove Remote by Jim Lang. He posted it on his page and he said And then I remember listening to it thinking ‘Has anyone has anyone made a hip-hop beat out of this?’ I just felt like I had to do it before someone else did. I think that’s why I put out so quickly.”
Do you run into many clearance issues when using more obscure samples?
“Oh, man. I don’t want to get too into it. But at this point [in my career], sampling will always be a double-edged sword. Eventually, later down the line [after a track’s released], people will reach out and say, ‘Hey, we heard our artist’s song in your track. We got to work something out,’ which is fine. But a lot of people always say ‘Why isn’t this track on Spotify and all platforms?’ I just want to reply like, ‘Hey, if you want to clear the sample I can go ahead and put it up.’ [laughs].
Was it a new challenge to integrate the live session recordings into this album?
“Yeah, there’s a couple of tracks where it just took me a while to figure out how I’m gonna arrange it [in a way] that would be effective. It felt like a really complicated puzzle. I mean, Ableton can feel like that sometimes — just a puzzle.”
Flamingosis. Image: Jack McKain
So you’re pretty much just on Ableton — are you using any other software?
It’s just all in Ableton and I just use the default stuff. Honestly, those stock sound instruments are not bad at all. Also, all the stock effects and stock mastering presets are all good yeah to me. It all gets the job done and that’s what I’ve been using for years.
The most important thing is creating a solid idea, arranging it so it has a beginning, middle and end — so I feel like the track tells some sort of story — and then making sure all the levels sound good to me. And if it feels good. Maybe technically, it doesn’t sound super polished or whatever but if it feels good, and it sounds cohesive, and it makes me feel a certain powerful way.”
Is there anything you wish you’d told yourself as a producer when you first started?
“Yeah, just make the music that you want to hear, first and foremost — it’s okay to make stuff that other people want to hear but make sure that you also want to hear it. And just keep putting out music. Don’t hold on to it for too long. And if you are holding on to something to save for later, work on other stuff to put out immediately because, life is like…we don’t got a lot of time, you know?”
Check out Flamingosis’ catalogue at Bandcamp.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
The post “Sampling will always be a double-edged sword”: Flamingosis talks modern hip-hop production on ‘Better Will Come’ appeared first on MusicTech.
